ASKRIGG artist Piers Browne has made a discovery.

The results can be seen in his latest exhibition of seascapes, From Brittany To Iona, at the Blake Gallery, Blake Street, York.

"I've discovered, doing the sea, that thick white paint, painted on pure yellow, enhances the whiteness of the glistening sun," he says. "When vertically embossed with palette knife, light is trapped and the glistening you can't possibly catch (except in film) with sun on water becomes 'renderable' in oils. It sounds dreadfully corny but really works, so I'm taking a studio on Iona for a while to develop the idea in massive 40ft sq oils done in a barn here in Wensleydale. I guess that'll be my 2005 sabbatical!"

From Brittany To Iona comprises paintings and etchings not only of French and Scottish seascapes but of the Yorkshire coast too. Many of the works can be seen on www.piersbrowne.com, and all of them are for sale through the Blake Gallery, where the exhibition will run until October 23. Opening hours are 10am to 5pm daily (closed Sundays and Tuesdays).

Meanwhile, Piers has a series of love sonnets to finish. "I'm an old Romantic in a hard-edge time," he says. "Sonnets For A Siren is the title, and I'll be bunging it at an unsuspecting agent in the spring."

Updated: 16:17 Thursday, October 07, 2004